These three episodes made me feel bad for Raelle.
Edit (6/22/2020): Part 3 is live, so some “Coming Soon” text has been removed from the end of this piece.
Before we take a look at Episodes 5-7 of this show, it’s important to note that you probably won’t fully understand this section without a read-through of Part 1. Be sure to do that!
With that out of the way, I think that I’m going to have to walk back some of the comments made in that article as well. For all of its faults, the show isn’t horrifically unwatchable, but it did waste a lot of time. However, I’m rather happy to report that this show actually starts to find its footing in this middle portion.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s still corny and goofy as all hell, but it works a lot better than it did.
So, let’s get started!
Episode 5 – It’s A Wedding!
On the other hand, you’re bringing the fraternization question up now?!
“Bellweather Season” reveals quite a little bit more of the mythology behind this alternate United States, and it’s kind of interesting and weird because it’s centered around a wedding.
As the story opens, we learn that more than a few of the witches are heading to a wedding of American royalty in Massachusetts, which is classified as a mid-Atlantic state when it’s actually in New England.
Oops.
While the main trio gets ready, Scylla looks like she’s having some second thoughts about her terrorist connections, but she still has to follow orders that are transmitted via a balloon in a mirror. Apparently, the Spree want her to infiltrate the wedding, so she disguises herself as an Asian-American waitress and meets up with Raelle.
Everything appears to be okay at first glance. As Abigail supports the bride, Charvel (Bernadette Beck), and preens in front of the senior staff, we learn more about how the witches marry. For some reason, they choose to marry on a matrilineal basis for five years, even though the original witches were colonists and men also have magical powers. One could say that a particular sub-sect does that, but it seems incredibly odd when we consider everything else in the show.
In an even funnier twist, the fraternization argument that I made in Part 1 actually comes up in this episode. On top of that, we learn that Tally’s boy toy, Gerit (Kai Bradbury), is actually engaged.
Now, I don’t know about you, but that seems to fit in spectacularly well with the soap opera BS in this show. Just you wait until we get to Part 3 for the conclusion to this hilarity!
After a slightly confusing aside about deploying while pregnant to places like the Sudan, we follow Tally as she nurses her understandably broken mind. After crying it out in the bathroom, she suddenly hears someone talking outside of her stall. When she creaks the door open, she is shocked to see Scylla communing with the balloon in the mirror, but stays quiet and learns that the Spree want to abduct someone.
Immediately after that, we learn that Raelle is the target, which makes perfect sense. Scylla tries to take her out for a “walk along the beach,” but Raelle asks her to dance instead. As the clock strikes six, Scylla declares her love for Raelle, but flees in fear of what’s next.
Meanwhile, Tally sounds the alarm with Anacostia’s help, but it’s too late. In an instant, Abigail discovers that Charvel was murdered and posed in the upstairs bathroom, and is suddenly attacked by two Spree goons. With the aid of her mother, Petra (Catherine Lough Haggquist), our heroine repels the two assassins in a Jason Bourne-esque fight scene, but can’t escape without getting stabbed in the shoulder. In between all of that, the rest of the witches are forced to blow back a metric ton of suicide balloons with a tornado.
While almost everyone is safe, Raelle is left to stare in wonder at a pin that Scylla dropped on the floor.
Episode 6 – TELL THEM.
This is good character development, but it’s also the only character development that Bridey will get. Maybe there’ll be more in Season 2?
“Up is Down” is a near-immediate follow-up to the last episode, but it also starts up a new storyline that was alluded to in Episode 3.
Apparently, the U.S. has set up an outpost in the Tarim Basin between Russia and China, which is a rather daring strategic move when one considers, well, everything. However, the wider geopolitics of East Asia quickly takes a back seat to a very human story. We learn that Adil (Tony Giroux) is bringing his younger sister, Khalida (Kylee Brown), to that outpost because she is sickened by some unknown disease that turns her blood vessels black.
Back in the U.S., Abigail is in the process of reporting the attack to her superiors, and we learn that the Spree drugged her with witches’ tears. The senior officers don’t have much to go on, but vow to look into it and the sudden arrival of Adil and Khalida.
Tally can’t bear to tell Raelle that she thinks that Scylla is a Spree operative, so she keeps her mouth shut and the trio continues their training.
Before their next lesson, General Alder meets with Adil and Khalida. It’s rather confusing as to whether or not she’s in the Tarim Basin or the United States, but she gives Adil the chance to look after her sister in the comfort of Fort Salem. Adil reluctantly agrees, and the brother and sister are transferred to Massachusetts.
Back in the U.S., we learn that the wedding attack was not the only assassination that occurred. For some unknown reason, the Spree have killed 17 different people in 6 states and ripped out their vocal cords. The autopsy team knows that the victims are related to the Bellweathers, but can’t really explain the why behind it all at this point.
This storyline would have been interesting if the writers continued on with it, but we never really get a clear motive out of it.
With all of that out of the way, we finally get to the next major lesson. In a combat situation, witches can easily fly in to an area with the help of a substance called salva, which you might remember from Raelle and Scylla’s little floating scene in Episode 1. Raelle is compelled to try it first by jumping out of a tall tree, but she quickly becomes distracted by the memory of that moment and falls to the ground. In her frustration, she mouths off to her instructor, which doesn’t really help matters.
Just after that, Petra Bellweather calls Abigail to her office. She reasonably suspects that the Spree are going after every Bellweather of child-bearing age, so she assigns a bodyguard to her daughter by the name of Bridey (Naiah Cummins). Needless to say, Bridey and Abigail have a hard time getting to know one another, but they develop a little bit of a bond after Bridey reveals how she lost her eye.
I won’t reveal it completely here, but it isn’t that bad of a backstory for a side character.
In between everything, Tally tries to let go of what she learned, partly because she was ordered to do so and partly out of a sense of what it means to be a soldier. She wants to focus on what she can do rather than what she can’t, so she lets go of any remaining feelings of guilt.
As all of this is happening, Raelle sneaks into the necromancy section. After poking and prodding a wall of mold that oddly looks like Scylla, she “discovers” that the official story is that Scylla died in the storm. Raelle doesn’t really believe that, so she steals some War Department-issue salva. As I wondered why there’s no Department of Defense in this universe, Raelle flies away and tries to find her terrorist girlfriend. Tally and Abigail track her to a lighthouse on the coast, but they find her alone there.
It’s a genuinely sad scene, but it’s soon interrupted by the mood whiplash of seeing Scylla alive in a dark room. Just after that, General Alder enters, and it’s implied that the Scylla is about to be put through the ringer in every way possible.
Wew! This is starting to turn into a roller-coaster ride!
Episode 7 – How Metal Does This Get?!
Lyne Renée is really good in this. Her performance constantly gives off the impression that General Alder is not to be screwed with.
“Mother Mycelium” is somewhat similar to the previous episode in structure, but there are a few moments in here that are awesome and disturbing at the same time.
The story picks up nearly where we left off. In that deep, dark hole, General Alder attempts to break Scylla with some extremely harsh interrogation methods, but ultimately turns the task over to Anacostia when her efforts don’t work. For some strange reason, Scylla points out that General Alder bound witches to people who hate them, even though we’ve only really seen one guy who actually believes that for reasons.
That’s supposedly enough to start a war between humans and witches in this universe. I don’t know why.
Elsewhere on the base, we check in with Abigail, Adil, and Khalida. As Abigail shows Adil around the base, we learn that a bunch of non-gloved medical personnel are baffled by Khalida’s deteriorating condition. They believe that she is suffering from some sort of fungal plague, but are caught off guard by a low groan that shatters all of the glass in the room.
It’s kind of cool, but things get a hell of a lot weirder when Izadora (Emilie Leclerc) teaches the recruits about healers by SLITTING A CADET’S THROAT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Sure, she rapidly heals the injury with her abilities, but I have to remark on how brilliant, stupid, and metal this bit is. I don’t think that anyone can disagree with the fact that the imagery of the moment is a stroke of total genius, but it’s so fucking crazy that it seems like it belongs in a Paul Verhoeven movie.
I love it. If you’re going to go nuts, you might as well go all the way!
Oh, and Raelle also knocks out the entire room by accident because she used her Christian-ish healing spell, which is outside of the witches’ canon. She only got a reprimand for it, but that’s because we need to get back to some relationship drama!
Wew!
Sure, the Witch Father is fearful that American humans might pull out of the Salem Accords and there are international problems, but we need to get back to Tally’s steamy affair and Abigail’s bisexual cook-
Oh, wait. Tally got friendzoned and Abigail is intrigued by Adil’s “WAR IS BAD” rhetoric. Okay.
Oh, and Anacostia can’t break Scylla. That happened.
Anyway, Khalida’s condition is getting worse, so General Alder tries to oversee the efforts to cure her for a moment. Nothing seems to be working, which causes Adil to panic over the oncoming loss of his sibling. Luckily, Abigail suggests that he take Khalida to Raelle, which actually works even though she doesn’t take on the injury in question.
There’s a good reason for that. Remember that wall of mold that Raelle poked back in Episode 6? It turned black, which horrifies Izadora.
We still can’t get away from the romantic subplots, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when they’re so funny. Even though she was supposed to be friendzoned, Tally confronts Gerit in his guest room, and they wind up having sex. At the same time, Adil teaches Abigail how he turns invisible, and they kiss.
Keep both of these moments in mind. The writers actually follow through on them in Part 3!
The episode ends with a return to Scylla and Raelle. Anacostia can’t seem to get through Scylla’s defenses, so she abducts Raelle in the middle of the night and shoves her into the room with her. After quite a bit of tears and some more gaslighting by Scylla, Anacostia pulls Raelle away and probes Scylla’s mind once more, finally discovering that she was the one behind the mall attack in Episode 1.
Meanwhile, General Alder tries to enlist Khalida’s help. She wants the songs and spells that the Tarim have under the motive of making the world better. However, Khalida doesn’t trust the Americans, so she wilts the plants around her and forces General Alder to the floor in pain. It’s a strange moment, but we’re soon whisked back to the main trio.
Raelle wakes up in a panic, knowing for a fact that Scylla is alive. However, she isn’t given any time to argue or reflect on it before being whisked off to another exercise called Citydrop, which is thought to be the final crucible of the cadets’ training. In a cool ending shot, they take some salva and leap out of a helicopter, flying through the air at high speed.
So, that’s Part 2 of Motherland: Fort Salem’s first season. Let’s finish off our examination with a look at Part 3!
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